Names on the Land

In honor of National Poetry Month (and the possibility that we might actually be able to travel this summer) I bring you the travel diary of a young man who took a road trip from Ohio down to the Grand Canyon and then up through California to the Pacific Northwest in the summer of 1928. While there is a fair amount of description, the poetry comes from the long lists of place names he provides- this was pre-interstate so making your way across the country usually meant driving straight through towns rather than bypassing them on via a highway. This will probably be tl:dr for most but for the few who might enjoy such a thing I’ve scanned it in it’s entirety. Click here to see it all!

Kentland

Yesterday I picked up a small but interesting lot of negatives (with a few snapshots mixed in) from the estate of a young man from Kentland, Indiana in the late 1910s/early 20s. Several of the negatives had been painted over in order to vignette the subject and one actually had a a figure cut out and glued directly to the negative itself. All in all a nice little set and a welcome addition to my collection. You can see them all here.

 

When Meat was Cheap and Other Stories by Mary Clarke

In honor of National Poetry Month I thought I’d post a selection of captioned photos taken from two albums put together by Mary Clarke of Lowville, NY in the 1910’s/20s. The photos are fairly ordinary but her captions are fantastic- you get the usual puns, some limericks, and a bunch of the most enigmatic captions I’ve ever seen. Click here to see them all.